Team Romney, RNC announce raising nearly $77 million in May

Just hours after the Obama campaign announced that it, the Democratic National Committee, and other Obama-related committees had raked in $60 million in May, Team Romney said they one-upped them.

Their Romney campaign/Republican National Committee haul: $76.8 million. They also reported having a combined $107 million in the bank for all of their committees.

“We are encouraged by the financial support from a broad range of voters," Romney Victory National Finance Chairman Spencer Zwick said in a statement. "Voters are making an investment because they believe that it will benefit the country.”

But if the financial reports from April are any indication, much of that nearly $77 million is coming in the form of big five-figure checks from large donors.

Around this same time last month, the Romney camp and RNC reported raising a combined $40 million. But when we saw the actual Federal Election Committee filings, it was $11.7 million for the campaign, $11.4 million for the RNC, and the rest -- $17 million -- for the Romney Victory Fund.

The Romney Victory Fund -- which also includes coordination with the state GOPs of ID, MA, OK, and VT -- is the mechanism that allows donors to contribute up to $75,000 each. In mid-May, both Mitt Romney and his wife each contributed $75,000 to the Victory Fund.

There is also an Obama Victory Fund, which allows large donors to cut equally big checks. But when Team Obama announced raising $43.6 in April, the FEC filings later showed that the campaign raised $25.7 million, the DNC raised $14.3 million, although nearly half of that DNC money came from a transfer from the Obama Victory Fund.

(When Team Obama collects large checks, the first $5,000 go to the campaign, which is the individual maximum; $30,800 go to the DNC, which is the max; and the rest go to the other committees.)

We will not be able to get a campaign vs. campaign or party vs. party comparison on these numbers until June 20, when FEC reports for May are due.